California Sports Journal

His manager knows it, his teammates know it and, because this is a guy who has been around a little, it’s a pretty safe bet most scouts know it, too.

You wonder if Scott Dohmann knows it.

You know Scott Dohmann, right? He’s that lanky kid out of the Louisiana bayou who with two pitches has single-handedly created more good drama at SBC Park this weekend than CBS does in a year.

His latest addition was Tucker’s knew-it-when-he-hit-it grand slam in the bottom of the eighth yesterday that shattered what had been a nice pitching duel and rearranged it into a 4-2 Giants victory over Colorado.

It’s hard to blame Dohmann, a second-year reliever the Rockies, for starting Tucker off with a fastball. He had just walked Edgardo Alfonzo on five pitches to load the bases and Dohmann can hit the mid 90s.

The first pitch to Tucker was no exception, coming in at 94 miles per hour. It came in fast, went out fast and stopped wet, landing in the bay. It was the big hit the Giants had waited for all day after managing only singles and four walks off Colorado starter Jamey Wright.

"We knew that if we kept getting guys on base, something big was going to happen," Tucker said.

The headaches were still pounding at the park from Friday night, when Tucker’s fellow journeyman veteran Marquis Grissom lined a walk-off homer off another Dohmann fastball in the bottom of the ninth of a 10-8 win. With Barry Bonds and Moises Alou down with injuries, it’s guys like Tucker and Grissom who will have to keep things going for the Giants.

"This is a very deep club," manager Felipe Alou insisted.

That depth includes Omar Vizquel, the guy Tucker called "our second lead-off hitter." Vizquel lined a soft single to center with one out in the eighth, moved to third on a Pedro Feliz single two batters later and was dancing up and down the base path as Alfonzo drew that walk.

Moments later, Wright was standing at the top of the dugout stairs as four Giants rounded the bases, looking awfully dejected with his right arm wrapped in a towel and his head hanging low.

Giants starter Jerome Williams gave up one run through seven innings in his first game of the season. Like Wright, he was full of emotion, but for a different reason: his father, Glenn, underwent liver and kidney transplants last month and his health may have contributed to his son’s rough spring. That’s all meaningless now.

"I’m going to go home and call my dad," he said. "This was very emotional."